Proposals
are mini-estimates that provide a preview of a job for a client. It
lets you provide a clear, concise proposal of the work you are offering
without opening an actual job ticket.

Proposals are a starting place to organize important
details before the client starts the work. Proposals can
be added when pitching an idea to a client (or
prospective client, too). Once your bid is accepted, they
can be easily converted into job tickets. With a creative
brief, cost, and start and due dates, you can pinpoint
exactly what resources are needed to get the job
done.

The printed proposal looks like the combination of a job
ticket report and creative brief. It doesn't get a job
number, but each proposal is numbered automatically in
sequence. A proposal gets its creative brief from a
user-selected job type/spec sheet when the proposal is
added.

To use proposals

1 Choose Production > Proposals.

The Proposals window opens, prompting you to enter a
client number.

2 Enter a client number, or enter the word "ALL", then click
the Show button.

Clients & Profits X then lists all of the proposals for
the client number you entered. Proposals are sorted
sequentially (oldest first) by client number. For each
proposal you'll see the client number, ID,
name/description, type (which is based on job type/spec
sheets), budget, and current status.

Clicking the next
or previous
buttons to select the next or previously displayed
proposals. You can sort proposals by clicking on a column
heading. The sort direction (i.e., ascending or
descending) can be changed by clicking on the up/down
arrow.

When you select a proposal, its description appears,
giving more detail about the job. Double-clicking on the
proposal opens the edit proposal window so you can view
the full description, creative brief, contact, and other
details.

Proposals have one of three statuses: pending, killed, or approved.
All new proposals are pending by default. Approving a proposal
converts it into a job ticket, changing the proposal's status to approved.
If the client turns down the proposal, clicking the kill button
changes its status to killed. The "show status" pop-up menu
can be used to filter the proposal list to show only pending, approved
or killed proposals.

Use the windows toolbar buttons to add, clone,
edit, and delete proposals. Clicking on a button is the
equivalent to choosing a menu command.

An existing proposal can be duplicated, or cloned, into a
new proposal for the same client or a different client.
Once a proposal is cloned, it can be modified as needed.
An original proposal can be cloned any number of
times.

Clicking the approve
button automatically creates a job ticket from the
selected proposal. When the proposal becomes a job, the
proposals name becomes the jobs name, and its
description becomes the jobs description. Several
proposals can be approved at one time by using your mouse
to select multiple proposals. Any staff member with the
access privileges to open jobs can approve a proposal,
even if they didn't add it themselves.

Proposals can only be approved for active clients. If a proposal was
created for an inactive client or prospective client, you'll need
to first make the account "active" in the Clients window then approve
the proposal. Also, proposals can't be approved if the client is on
credit hold.

1 Click on a proposal to select it.

2 Click on the approve
button.

An approved proposal can't be unapproved. Instead, the
job created by the approved proposal can be canceled.

To kill a proposal

Clicking the kill
button effectively cancels the proposal. Clients &
Profits saves the killed proposal for future reference,
but it can't be converted into a job ticket. An approved
proposal can't be killed. Several proposals can be killed
at one time by using your mouse to choose two or more
proposals.

1 Click on a proposal to select it.

2 Click on the kill
button.

A killed proposal can still be approved later should the
client change its mind.

To print a list of proposals

A proposal list can be printed showing the proposals that
are currently displayed in the Proposals window.